'Up All Night' Creator Emily Spivey Inks 20th TV Overall Deal

Courtesy of UTA

Emily Spivey

Rather than lay a foundation at "Up All Night's" studio Universal Television, the former "SNL" writer has signed a two-year deal at rival 20th TV and will co-EP the studio's animated effort "Murder Police."

With the fate of her NBC creation Up All Night still hanging in the balance, Emily Spivey has inked a two-year overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television.

As part of the new deal, the writer-producer will be focused on developing new series as well as working on the studio's current fare. Her first assignment is to serve as a co-executive producer on Fox's upcoming animated series Murder Police, from former Family Guy executive producer David Goodman and Jason Ruiz.

"Emily is one of those unique, funny female voices that we have had our eyes on for some time -- we’ve been big fans ever since she worked for us on King of the Hill at the very start of her career," 20th TV chairman Gary Newman said. "She’s an incredible talent who can do it all: live-action, animation, you name it."

He continued: "She’s won awards for her work on Saturday Night Live, which may be the best comedy training ground in the business. And bringing her on board is all part of our strategy of building the best comedy bench in town."

Prior to creating Universal TV-produced Up All Night, which she exited as an executive producer earlier this year, Spivey was a writer-producer on NBC's Parks and Recreation and, before that, a writing supervisor on SNL, for which she won a shared Emmy for outstanding writing in 2002.She began her career working on small-screen comedies MADtv and King of the Hill as a writer and story editor.

Meanwhile, NBC has not yet officially canceled Up All Night, though as The Hollywood Reporterrecently reported, the network's execs are said to be strongly considering abandoning plans to keep the floundering series alive in the wake of star Christina Applegate's recent exit. With a planned one-episode reboot -- transforming the series from a single-camera entry to a multicamera, behind-the-scenes look at a struggling television series -- stalled, the writing staff is said to be seeking new jobs and co-star Will Arnett has booked a leading role on CBS' Greg Garcia comedy in second position.